Yes, we have been pretty miserable this week, what with rolling blackouts, sub-freezing temperatures, and skating rink roads. So, as a public service, and to cheer everyone up, know that it has been a lot worse in Dallas.

If the forecast holds and we don’t break freezing until Saturday morning, we will have had about 120 consecutive hours of sub-freezing weather. Which is nowhere near a record. That honor goes to the winter of 1983, when the temperature stayed below 32 for 295 hours — from 7 a.m. Dec 18 to 2 p.m. Dec. 30. So, children, when your parents tell you that they walked uphill to school in the snow both ways that winter, they probably did.

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In fact, our suffering won’t even put us in the top six of sub-freezing endurance sessions. No. 6 came in 1996, when we went through 136 consecutive hours below 32 from Jan. 30 to Feb. 5.